27 Dad memories

In honor of 27 Father's Days!

1. When I was growing up my dad always came home for lunch. It was very exciting. As soon as his little car zoomed up the driveway someone would yell "Dad's home!" and we would all go running to the door. My mom says that as Dad would leave to go back to the office I would wave from the window and say "make money".

2. Sometimes I would prepare for his lunch visit by playing dress up. Dad would pretend that he didn't know it was me and he would just keep talking to me like I was a lunch guest and say things like "I really wish I knew where Ashley was so that you could meet her" and I would just giggle and think he had no idea that it was really me.

3. When Dad got home from work in the afternoon he would always play with Adam and me and give my mom a chance to cook super. One of the things I remember doing, just the 3 of us, was dancing around our dining room table to Walk Like an Egyptian.

4. My mom sold Mary Kay makeup when we were little. When big shipments came in we would empty the boxes and then I would get in one and Adam would get in another one and my dad would spin the boxes all around the kitchen floor. We would get so dizzy, but we loved it.

5. I remember going to the beach and having a big boat float that Adam and I would both be in. Dad would take us into the ocean in it and he would say "Ok kids, I'm sending you off to China. Have a safe trip!" And he would give the boat a little push, go under the water, and then pop back up and act like we had sailed to China and he would be speaking Chinese (well, his version of it). We thought this was hilarious. Then he would ship us off again and pop back up speaking another language until finally we sailed back home and told him of all the places we had been to.

6. He used to make up stories for us. I still remember a lot of the story he made up for our trip to Panama City about a little girl named Pashley Aige and Padam Arker. I was in elementary school but I still remember the story of how the city got it's name - from the young boy who would sell bread on the side of the road and yell out "panama's biscuits, right here!"

7. Dad woke me up every morning for school. I would take my shower and then I would wake Adam up. I am horrible to wake up in the mornings. Really terrible. He would always come in and turn my light on and my fan off. Then he would come back a few minutes later and talk to me, sit me up in bed, and then sit down behind me so that I couldn't lay back down. I would eventually get up and walk to the bathroom, without ever saying a word (I'm not much for conversation in the mornings). On my last day of high school when he woke me up he had a dozen yellow roses and a card that said "Even though you were never happy to see me, even though you never said a word, I will miss waking you up every morning ". It may have said more, but that's the part I remember.

8. I think my dad had just turned 40 and we were taking a trip to Cookville, TN for a visit with all of Mom and Dad's dental school friends. We hadn't seen them in a while so Dad decided to buy extra big clothes, pull over before we got to their house, and stuff the clothes to make it look like he had put on a ton of weight. He looked really funny, especially since his face and neck were really thin in comparison to his huge, stuffed body.

9. When I was the homecoming attendant in 9th grade we had to ride out onto the football field in a float at half time. Our float was a sail boat and the sides of the boat were too high for me to climb over in my dress. Dad just put me over his shoulder (in the center of the football field) and then stood me up in the grass.

10. Dad baptized me at church camp at 1:00 AM. It was a Monday night and I had been thinking about getting baptized for a while and had been asking a lot of questions, reading my Bible, and praying. I told my counselor that I wanted to get baptized so she took me to call my parents. They said "We're on our way!" They had to drive a little over an hour to get there and then we woke up Adam, and some other cousins and friends that were also at camp and Dad baptized me in the pool.

11. Dad is the Bingo Master. Every year at Thanksgiving at Nana's we play bingo. I'm not sure how many years we have been doing this, but my dad is always the bingo master (see video above). He is hilarious. He looks up all kinds of trivia beforehand and he comes with tons of great prizes (including lots of money!) and in between rounds he will give out prizes for trivia questions also. Our family knows what the biggest turkey ever recorded was and all kinds of other random facts we have learned from Thanksgiving bingo. One year I remember my aunt Marie had not won any prizes and she was kind of down about it. My dad said "Hey, little girl, would you like to spin the bingo wheel?" She kind of perked up and reached for it and he quickly turned it the other direction and said "well, that's too bad...you're not the Bingo Master." He takes it pretty seriously.

12. He dressed up in a Batman costume one year and went out on the roof of our house (where he knew I would see him from the driveway). As soon as I saw him (he had the face mask on and everything) he took off the other direction with his cape flying behind him. I screamed at the top of my lungs and flew into the house. I don't think he realized it would actually scare me. I was definitely old enough to know that Batman wasn't real. I just thought some crazy maniac in a Batman suit was on our roof - that was scary enough!

13. Dad was always the one to help with my math homework. He is a math whiz. I will never count touchpoints again, Dad!

14. He decided that I needed to learn how to drive a stick shift, so he taught me how in his truck. He had to have a new engine put in it a few days later.

15. My mom was always the one who picked me up from JCS in Jackson when we still lived in Middleton. One day my dad picked me up from school and I convinced him to go to the mall. He bought me a lot of clothes at Express. Accessories too. When I tried them on and came out of the dressing room to show him he just said "Sure. Looks good. Do you like it?" I got back to Middleton with a bag full of new things. Mom was slightly annoyed. I even remember her saying (and this was 14 years ago), "Karl, did you even look at the price tags?" :)

16. Mom and Dad picked Adam and me up from school one Friday and told us that we were going to Memphis. We both fell asleep in the back seat and when they woke us up they told us they tried to take a back way and got lost but that we were going to eat at this restaurant and then go back home. I was a little too smart for them. We had been to Memphis 1,000 times. They did not get lost. Plus, I noticed that no other license tags in the parking lot were TN, there were all Missouri tags. I asked Mom about it and she made up something semi-believable. Adam and I went back to sleep after dinner in the car and when my parents woke us up we were in front of the Arch in St. Louis and they were both singing, very loudly, Meet Me in St. Louis. We went to Cardinals games and spent the surprise weekend in St. Louis. It was so much fun.

17. Pictured above: Dad and I did the Country Music 1/2 Marathon together in April. My memory of this includes me being silent and trying to keep breathing and dad talking/coaching.

18. Pictured above: Mom, Dad, and I came to Miami last October to look for apartments for Ryan and me to live in. We took an early morning flight and Dad did not realize until he took his shoes off to go through security that he was wearing 2 different shoes. He had to wear them until we got settled in Miami because we had already checked our luggage.

19. Pictured above: My family had a tacky Christmas sweater party and went Christmas carolling (even though none of us can sing). Dad was definitely the tackiest in his cut-off and rolled entirely too short denim shorts and cowboy boots. And that's a diet coke he's drinking, although from his appearance you might expect it to be something alcoholic!

20. My mom has always made it clear that she does not consider something to be a gift if its purpose is housework. In other words, she doesn't want a vacuum cleaner or an ironing board for her birthday. I remember one Christmas my dad had purchased a LOT of gifts for my mom. He just went out shopping by himself and came home with a bunch of beautifully wrapped packages, all for her. The ladies at the boutique he went to had his number and talked him into buying too much. Anyway, as I was bringing her to open her presents Dad started running the vacuum cleaner from another room in the house and yelling out "Don't bring her yet, let me make sure it works!"

21. Another Christmas memory is driving in the car on Christmas Eve after dark and Dad having us all watch out the windows for Santa's sleigh. I remember one time I told him I might see it and he got super excited, started driving faster, and said "We've got to get ya'll home and in bed right now! I didn't expect him to be to TN yet!" (or something like that) Anyway, Adam and I were both so excited because we were just sure Santa was in our neighborhood.

22. We were in Sanibel with our good family friends when the new New Kids on the Block tape (no CDs then) came out. Dad bought it for me on the trip and brought it back to the condo as a surprise. That made him the coolest ever!

23. When I was getting ready for my semester abroad in Vienna I commented to my parents about when/where I would get my hair cut. Dad said that neither of us should cut our hair for the entire 3 months. I don't think either of us did. He kind of looked like one of the Beatles when he picked me up from the airport. In a good way.

24. I loved playing hide-and-seek when I was little. One spot that I liked to hide in was behind the shower curtain. I would sit in the floor with my legs flat out in front of me and the shower curtain covering only my body and face. I sat perfectly still and really thought he didn't know where I was (I was very young). He would look everywhere else and loudly say "Hmmm...where could she possibly be? Maybe in the closet? No. Maybe behind the door? No." and I would cover my mouth because I was giggling at how good I was at hiding. :)

25. Dad took Adam and me to Chickasaw one Saturday to give my mom a break from us. We went hiking and dad had us singing at the top of our lungs: "Over hill, over dale (? is that what we said?) we will hit the leafy trail, as those Warrens go marching along. For it's hi hi he for Dad, Adam and Ashley. Sound off your numbers loud and strong! (I yelled "1", Adam "2", and Dad was "3") For where ever you go, you will always know that those Warrens go marching along."

26. One day it was really storming and our cat was missing. I think it was Happy Cat, but maybe not. Anyway, Dad, who is deathly allergic to cats, went out in the pouring rain and found our cat and brought him home. He probably needed an inhaler and a shot by the time they got back to the house. The cat lived outside so he didn't have to be around it normally.

27. Before I left for the semester abroad, Dad gave me a new bible to take and he wrote a long note in the front of it. He even taped his picture to it "in case I forgot what he looked like while I was gone". The picture was of him in college, so it wasn't exactly what he looked like. :) I read the note, and the Bible, all the time while I was in Europe and it helped me not to feel homesick.

As you can see, I have the greatest dad. Ryan and I are both so thankful for our dads - for everything they have done for our families, how hard they have worked and how hard they still work, how much they have sacrificed for us, and how much they have loved us. We are also very thankful for how they love our moms! Thanks to them Ryan is a wonderful husband, and will know how to be a wonderful father someday!

Happy Father's Day! We love you!